Humidity control apparatus for controlling humidities of outdoor air and indoor air, and supplying the humidity-controlled air to the inside of a room have been known. Patent Document 1 shows a humidity control apparatus including an adsorption heat exchanger carrying an adsorbent on a surface thereof.
The humidity control apparatus of Patent Document 1 includes a first adsorption heat exchanger placed in a first humidity control chamber, and a second adsorption heat exchanger placed in a second humidity control chamber. The adsorption heat exchangers are connected to a refrigerant circuit. The refrigerant circuit alternately performs operation in which the first adsorption heat exchanger functions as a condenser, and the second adsorption heat exchanger functions as an evaporator, and operation in which the second adsorption heat exchanger functions as a condenser, and the first adsorption heat exchanger functions as an evaporator. In the adsorption heat exchanger functioning as the evaporator, the adsorbent adsorbs moisture in the air. In the adsorption heat exchanger functioning as the condenser, the moisture is released from the adsorbent, and is contained in the air.
The humidity control apparatus of Patent Document 1 supplies one of the flows of air that passed through the adsorption heat exchangers, and discharges the other flow. For example, in the humidity control apparatus in dehumidifying operation, an air flow passage in the casing is determined in such a manner that the air that passed through one of the first and second adsorption heat exchangers functioning as the evaporator is supplied to the inside of the room, and the air that passed through the other adsorption heat exchanger functioning as the condenser is discharged outside the room.
In the humidity control apparatus of Patent Document 1, the air flow passage is switched by opening/closing a plurality of dampers. Specifically, in this humidity control apparatus, opening/closing of eight dampers is controlled to change the passage of the air flowing through the adsorption heat exchangers, thereby switching dehumidifying operation, humidifying operation, etc.
However, the provision of the plurality of dampers involves difficult maintenance of the dampers. Specifically, when the dampers are independently arranged, attachment and detachment of the dampers are complicated, thereby reducing efficiency of the maintenance.
As a solution to this problem, in the humidity control apparatus of Patent Document 1, two adjacent dampers are combined as an integrated unit (a damper unit) which is able to be drawn out of the casing. This allows for attachment/detachment of the two dampers to/from the casing together, thereby improving the efficiency of the maintenance.